noobie needs advice

[rab glasgow]

hi all this is my first post anyway my daughter is disabled but loves watching fish so next week im going to get her a tank ill be doing a fish cycle with danios and was wondering do i still do a 10 percent water change every week from the first week thanks

 

[molliwopp]

Ideally you would want to do a water change whenever the ammonia or nitrite reads higher than 0.5ppm to keep them at safe, non life threatening levels. Otherwise youre causing alot of stress. Ammonia is horrible stuff and 10% weekly Definitely wouldnt be enough. It would also depend on the size of the tank because obviously a bigger tank with more water will foul slower than a small one but could unfortunatly be daily.

The 10% change you talk of is for cycled established tanks with low bioload to reduce nitrates. 10% is actually a pretty useless amount to change in my opinion and 30% when cycled is more realistic in my view.

I always recommend cycling a tank without fish to stop any unnesessary suffering.. im not going to push the idea onto you, its your choice.

How big is the tank you want to use?

 

[FishBoy185]

Yes, molliwopp is right, I agree 100%

 

[rab glasgow]

hi thanks for the reply well as you can probs tell im new to this thats why i ask you kind people so you think a change of half half while its cycling thanks

 

[rab glasgow]

sorry tank is a 64 liter

 

[molliwopp]

hi thanks for the reply well as you can probs tell im new to this thats why i ask you kind people so you think a change of half half while its cycling thanks

Again ideally getting a water testing kit would be benifical as it would give you specific readings, making it easy to know much water needs to be changed out to keep the levels low until cycled. Being new to aquariums, i want you to know that the testing kits arnt hard to follow even for a novice and if stuck you can always post you results here and we'll help you out. It will also be able to tell you when your cycle starts to kick in and tell you when you can reduce the amount and the percentage you need to change. An api liquid master kit would be the one to get but if on a tight budget the strips will be OK but can be inaccurate.

With or without a test kit its not hard to do a fish in cycle if your willing to do extra water changes just incase toxins are building up undetected but knowing when the cycles complete is harder to gauge. Choosing zebdanios was a good move though.

 

[frank98284]

Again ideally getting a water testing kit would be benifical as it would give you specific readings, making it easy to know much water needs to be changed out to keep the levels low until cycled. Being new to aquariums, i want you to know that the testing kits arnt hard to follow even for a novice and if stuck you can always post you results here and we'll help you out. It will also be able to tell you when your cycle starts to kick in and tell you when you can reduce the amount and the percentage you need to change. An api liquid master kit would be the one to get but if on a tight budget the strips will be OK but can be inaccurate.

With or without a test kit its not hard to do a fish in cycle if your willing to do extra water changes just incase toxins are building up undetected but knowing when the cycles complete is harder to gauge. Choosing zebdanios was a good move though.

I agree and use prime its the best IMO

 

[rab glasgow]

im actually quite lucky someone has decided to donate me a tank with guppies in it so it willl do untill i get my proper tank and stand can i use some filter from this tank in my new one to help with the cycle now i can do a fishless oh and any ideas on the size thanks

 

[molliwopp]

Yes, you can use it to cycle the tank. You could even use the filter in your own tank. It could instantly cycle your tank because it's actually the filter youre trying to cycle when we talking about 'cycling' as only alittle good bacteria settles in the substrate.

Are you going to use both tanks? Or are you moving the guppys over?

If you plan on using both, when you have an ammonia source to feed the bacteria growth, look inside the established filter and if theres 2 sponges, rince 1 of them into your new tank or filter or even place the sponge inside your new filter. Make sure you have an ammonia source present before you do this. If you opt for the rincing technique only rince one of them otherwise you could mess with the cycle of your established guppy tank, then after 2 weeks rince the other one. By this time you can bet your tank will be ready for fish.

If you are struggling to find bacteria food, you can let fish food rott in the bottom of the tank and this will create ammonia. Even better than that, youre from the UK like me so can get something called, SeAquariums - biomature. This is an ammonia based filter starter that ive used to cycle 3 tanks. Works well!

As for gauging the size of that tank without seeing it in the flesh.. id say 70litres max. What are the dimensions? It wiukd be easy to work it out if you had the length width and height.

 

[rab glasgow]

yes i was going to keep this tank going but eventually move the fish into my bigger tank once its cycled then i was thinking of keeping it as a quaratine tank and thanks for the filter advice its really appreaciated

 

[molliwopp]

yes i was going to keep this tank going but eventually move the fish into my bigger tank once its cycled then i was thinking of keeping it as a quaratine tank and thanks for the filter advice its really appreaciated

If your new tank is alot bigger than the guppy tank rince the sponge into the new filter directly or rinse it near the intake of your new filter so it gets sucked inside, youll get more of the bacteria straight into the new filter this way.

 

[rab glasgow]

thanks again i see i joined the right forum appreciated